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I'm currently sitting around 1700 in Diamond and have racked up many many games since Beta. I will not dare say I am a definitive source of SC information or that I know a ton more than anyone else. I will however take a moment to expand on a thought that's been recurring to me.
Yes, I play Terran, since the days of BW I was always more comfortable with Terran mechanics. As the game has evolved I've noticed more and more that people are not willing to take responsibility for their own choices, instead blaming balance. Most commonly, in my experience, this happens with Zerg enemies.
I will attempt here, to explain my views on TvZ/ZvT meta-gaming and how it is impacting the game right now for players across most levels.
1) Why do so many Zergs have trouble on ladders?
In one sentence I can confidently say that most Zerg are NOT playing to the strength of their race. Since the most recent balance patch Zergs are going more heavily into Roach play, usually using other units to support them.
A lot of my games end simply because Zergs never move beyond that point. There is no tech-switch from it. There is no heavy usage of additional support units (baneling, speedling, infestor). There is nothing but upgrades, expos and continuous Roach+whatever that they have been doing since 5 minutes into the game.
The wins I see usually come from adding in upgrades, adding tank support and adding Medivacs into what was initially a strong but simple MM combo.
2) What should Zergs be doing differently? (Again just my experience)
The main strength of Zerg lies in the ability to completely switch tech-trees very often. A zerg can go from a maxed army of roach/ling to a strong army of muta/bane or a hive unit with speedling support/banes. Really the strength of the race itself lies in the versatility of knowing you can change what you're doing VERY quickly and there is really very little Terran can do to keep pace.
As Zerg meta-game and mechanics evolve I see more heavy usage of Nydus being helpful. Korean Zergs are already getting overlord speed quickly so we could see more Terran-style drops of 2-3 ovies dropping instead of those "doom drops" we tend to see. I don't know why, but Zerg has seemed to flow away from Infestor + Hydralisk, which is the strongest combo you can get pre-hive vs an MMM army.
Another potent combination/switch which gives me a huge headache is going from Boordlord to Ultralisk. Once Zerg shows BLs the Terran is almost forced to focus on getting a bunch of Vikings to deal with this. The BLs do a good amount of damage to the ground army and while the Vikings are cleaning up, Ultras are made to counter Terrans new composition.
3) Hatch first, is it REALLY viable?
Do you even watch GSL/pro games? If you are a Zerg and go hatch before pool, please don't be mad when I 2 rax push it. I will do this almost 100% of the time. Now instead of building your economy you are forced to defend this push, giving me time to expand and get infrastructure going.
It's a win-win for me even if I don't do massive damage because you've been making units instead of drones. The early hatch advantage has just been tossed out the window and by the time you get saturation I will have my expo ready and we are back to square 1 only I have been building units and workers, leaving me a slight lead.
If you are going to go hatch first against a competent Terran you should expect pressure, otherwise you are basically being given a free lead.
4) Zerg is absolutely weaker in the early game but much stronger in late-game.
This is one fact I cannot express enough. Once a Zerg gets mid to late game without taking a huge hit to econ/tech they should almost always be ahead.
Most Terrans cannot tech-switch quick enough to deal with all the possibilities which can come. Most Terrans cannot rebuild their ranks as quickly as Zerg either. This means you can basically toss entire armies away as long as you do good army damage with them. If you have 4+ hatcheries and queens for injecting larvae, you can rebuild your forces much faster than most. Use this advantage and show some aggression.
Maybe I am completely wrong on these points or a single point within. I welcome any input on this post and left it in blog just because I am growing somewhat tired of being told I'm not playing well, I'm just using the EZ race.
 
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Sick of hearing about how zergs need to "lol tech switch more". That's the kind of stuff people were saying before 1.1.2 when it was impossible to win ZvT. Zerg's strength has never been it's ability to tech switch, go watch 90% of BW/SC2 Zerg games. You don't see people going muta/ling/bane then all of a sudden... WOAH HERE'S PURE ROACH/HYDRA. You don't see any of that because mid/late game armies from P/T don't have some magic unit comp that counters them. The other reason, you need lots of expensive upgrades for zerg units to effectively fight. You can't just randomly decide to switch to hydra or muta because those units require upgrades upgrades to be worth their cost.
There's a reason most of the zerg games you see consist of a player heavily investing in 2 or maybe 3 units and focusing their evo/spire upgrades on those units specifically. If a zerg has been going mutalingbane and upgrading air attack, ground armor and melee attack, switching to roach with no ranged attack ups/burrow is going to be a dumb idea 90% of the time.
The only time IMO where this is consistently a good idea is the broodlord->ultra switch, because unlike the other situations, broods actually force T to make a unit that isn't useful against the unit you are switching too.
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Yeah tech switches are only good when you force your opponent to make a unit that completely sucks against the unit your gonna tech switch to. say you tried from muta>roach. I suppose you can argue you make the T build more thors, so what? thors are still good. its not like the T's army suddenly becoems worthless.
But I do agree that to many zergs rush for a baneling bust or something and should play WAY more conseventantly where they can get to late and where zerg owns ^^
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Anyone blaming balance at the 1700 point range is outright wrong and does not know what they are talking about. People will always blame balance for their losses. Just ignore them and laugh to yourself at how much they suck.
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Sort of getting tired of other races telling other races how to play =(
EDIT: Here's some more content addressing parts of your issue (not all).
IMO tech switching isn't a key answer since all the races don't struggle with tech switching as they did in BW, so the flexibility of tech switching isn't a super strong aspect of Zerg. I completely disagree when you say Zerg is strongest late game, and this statement actually just depends on how the situation of the game flows. In terms of pure unit composition - Zerg is actually pretty terrible compared to other races late game.
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There is no such thing as 100% balance. Learn to flow with how the game flows, and play with what the game gives you.
Speculating on what could be better about your race will not make you a better player. Learning to take what you are given, and maximizing the strength of what you have infront of you is what makes a player great. Thats why we love players who can seemingly make something out of nothing. This is also why me love MacGyver.
Blaming balance serves when you lose serves only 1 purpose: protecting your own ego. It doesn't matter why you lost. Terran rolled over you hatch first with his mass marine? Kill all your workers with his banshees? Dont blame imba, both those situations are perfectly preventable. Look at your game and see how it could of been prevented.
There is never a point in the game where a race is so weak that they simply can't ever win. They might have a harder time at some points or in certain situations, but thats just a result of having 3 races with distinct qualities and units.
No race is straight up better than another, they each have their situational strengths and weaknesses, being good means not only knowing the game and having mood macro, but knowing how to steer a particular game into those situations where your race shines, while avoiding getting trapped in a situation where you are at a disadvantage.
The fact that Zerg is having trouble hatch first vs 2 racks is a result of Terrans doing that. A good terran knows, if zerg goes hatch first, one of the best ways to steer the game into a advantageous place for them is to apply early agression from 2-3 racks. In this case Zerg is forced to build units, preventing them from quickly building that beastly economy that will carry them into the mid/late game.
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EPT
